A Training partnership has served up new careers for fifteen previously unemployed people across County Durham. The group has found work with McDonald’s in Hartlepool and Bishop Auckland after the restaurant chain joined forces with Working Links, Darlington College and Jobcentre Plus.
McDonald’s’ franchise owner Mark Nuttall and Business Manager Bev Williamson decided to work with the other organisations after hearing positive reviews of how the partnership, funded by the Skills Funding Agency, has helped deliver results for other businesses across the North East.
Before landing the jobs, the group undertook a two-week training ‘routeway’ to give them the skills they need to work in the restaurants. The training included a City & Guilds Retail qualification, and covered a variety of topics including customer service, food safety, team building and scenario training.
Mark said: “This is the first time we’ve used an outside agency to help recruit new staff and we’ve been really happy with the results.
“Often we only have time to test out potential new recruits for 20 minutes or so in the restaurant so to have a long time to look at how they adapt to certain scenarios was very useful – and gave them some great experience so they were ready to hit the ground running.”
Two of the new recruits have been identified as candidates for McDonald’s’ fast-track management scheme and one has already picked up an employee of the month award.
Charlotte Ashwell, Employer Services Consultant at Working Links, said: “We’ve been working with a number of high-profile employers across the North East recently, enabling businesses to recruit new staff equipped with the right skills to fill vacancies. This is a perfect example of how we work with partners to deliver valuable results for the local labour market.”
* H&C News would like to congratulate McDonald’s and working Links on their excellent action of training and employing people, which is clearly working well for all involved.
To find out how Working Links helps communities, call 0800 917 9262 or Visit the Working Links Website